James Bond Vehicle Museum Takes Shape

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James Bond Vehicle Museum Takes Shape

The final designs are in for a new museum dedicated to displaying vehicles and other artifacts from the James Bond film series. The Gensler-designed Museum of Bond Vehicles & Espionage is due to open in 2012 in Illinois. Momence, Illinois.

The small town (population 3,200) 50 miles south of Chicago is home to the Ian Fleming Foundation, a nonprofit group that owns 32 original Bond vehicles including a helicopter from You Only Live Twice, the Lotus submarine from The Spy Who Loved Me and even the oft-lamented Ford Mondeo from Casino Royale.

Those vehicles will all be on display in one place at a brand-new 14,000-square-foot museum in time for the 50th anniversary of the first Bond film, Dr. No.

One marque that isn't particularly well-represented in the collection is Aston Martin. Only one Aston belongs to the foundation, the Volante fromThe Living Daylights. Still, if we were in Chicago we'd definitely take the trip down to Momence to check out the Mustang and Bath-O-Sub from Diamonds Are Forever or any of the Glastron boats from Live and Let Die.

That others would make the same trip is exactly what folks in Momence are hoping.

Bond über-aficionado Doug Redenius, vice president of the foundation, told the Momence Board of Aldermen last July that he expected the museum to draw up to 40,000 people in its first year of operation – quite a draw for such a small town.

"The project itself is a bit of a double agent," said Brian Vitale, the Design Director at Gensler. "At face value, we've designed a showcase for a world-class collection of James Bond vehicles and the culture that surrounds them. But its real mission is to become a powerful catalyst for the revitalization of a once-vibrant city."

The building itself may become part of the attraction. With a single window that's shaped like the "7" in "007" and a black corrugated metal exterior, Vitale says the building has a "mysterious silhouette that reveals very little of the museum's content, much like James Bond himself."

The museum, a partnership between the foundation, the Kankakee County Museum and Momence, will have exhibits about espionage in addition to the vehicles, and will also offer information on Bond's impact on pop culture and vice versa.

Original vehicles used in Bond films owned by the foundation that will be on display include: